LATEST

From the webmaster: on March 26, 2011 Janet sent me this note. True to her word, she followed it with two photos he sent, and his beautiful message.

Please click to see a larger version.

I am going to send you a photo that has just surfaced. I have written to the town and all of Maine looking for this photo and it came from a boy who used to ride the school bus with us in 1947. He might have gotten it after the teacher passed away but here it is.

And now, here is the message.

Hi Janet,

I’m David Fields who “rode the same school bus” with you and all the others who lived in our area in the 1940s. I remember very well the Listers, the Carters, the Twists from your road as well as the Raymonds, Beaulieus, Freemans. There were others – Hoods, Thibeaus, Branns, Bumfords – that may have been there during or after your time.

Libby Harmon copied you in an email to me and from your response to her I have your email. I hope that’s alright. I was so happy to read your “Notes about Whitefield” from some emails that I guess you sent to David Chase. Your comments about winters, the roads, no electricity, tough times – I guess that was so true for all of us. Many of my memories are similar to yours. My sisters and I have often said that, as hard as those times were, we are so glad that we grew up there and especially did not live in a big city or any city. I have retired and now live in Bremen, Maine (near the coast about 20 miles from Whitefield). My sisters are Nancy (Austin who lives near Calais, Maine and is two years younger) and Carolee (Withee) who is four years younger. Carolee and her husband David have retired on property that they bought right next door to the farm where we grew up. I’m sure you remember that when Rooney Road went through, it came out on South Hunt’s Meadow Road. We lived to the left about a half mile down. We were the last place before the town line of East Pittston. We lived there from 1941 until 1954. I have been back to the area many times, since Carolee now lives there. The Raymonds (Johnny was my best friend) and Bumfords lived just a very short distance to the left of the intersection. The Beaulieus lived just to the right of the intersection. The Raymond kids were Johnny, Genevieve, Pauline, Nancy, Elaine and Roland. The Bumfords were Jasper (Buddy) and Jackie. The Beaulieus were Eddy, Verna, Gilman, Carleen and a younger boy, Junior . The Mooney family – including Frances and Gertrude – lived on that road farther to the right. To add to one of your comments, Frances did marry Jerome Hickey and Gertrude married John Hickey. However, I don’t remember that Gertrude was ever one of our teachers. Most of the other families lived farther to the right on the next section of Hunt’s Meadow Road.

I can remember that you (and Joan, Don and Danny) sang a song at Church School not long after you came there. I’m quite certain it was “Let’s Remember Pearl Harbor”. I also remember one time Don said to me something like “If we omit your (my) middle name and my (his) last name, we’ll have the same initials: DF”. I may be wrong, but I think his middle name is Francis.

I have found and read with great interest the bio of you on a website. I didn’t know or remember that you had come from California and went back there when you left here. Also didn’t realize you returned to Maine again for a year or so in 1950. You have certainly traveled about and had great success as a yodeler/singer/entertainer. I am so happy to know that. I have had some minor local success as an entertainer also. I have sung in choruses all my life, but after I retired I began playing the banjo. I have two partners, Joe, my age, a guitar player and a younger woman, Debra, who plays the flute. I call us “Greenfields”. We all sing and do primarily Irish ballads (some folk, western) at retirement homes, senior living centers, fairs, etc.

I graduated from eighth grade in Whitefield in 1949. Since your family moved away before you graduated, I can’t remember whether you were in my class. Your bio says you were born in April 1934; I was born in May 1935, so you were probably a year ahead of me. In 1947 the school system made a change. Some of us in the 7th & 8th grades went to the North Whitefield school, some 7th & 8th graders went to the King’s Mills school (Clara Tibbetts went there), the middle graders went to the Keyes Corner school and the early graders went to the Church School. At least, that’s how I remember it.

Please click to see a larger version.

I have sent Libby Harmon copies of a few items I have saved from those days. I don’t know if she or David Chase may have forwarded them to you. They may soon be on the website. In case you don’t have them, I have attached to this email a copy of a photo of Frances Mooney Hickey. I have also attached a copy of a photo of Church School. You can see there is a sign on the front of the school. The sign reads “Official Salvage Depot”. You mentioned in your comments about the 1946 photo remembering that a newspaper took a photo of the ‘scrap’ we students collected. I find that so interesting. My sister, Carolee, and I have identified all the kids but one on that 1946 photo. Libby may have sent them to you, but if not, the names are now on the photo on the website.

Apparently, at one time, a link to your song “The Ballad of North Whitefield, Maine” was on the Whitefield website. I find it doesn’t work now, but I haven’t checked out why. And I haven’t been able to get it readily on any site. I’d love to at least see the lyrics. I’d be happy to hear from you sometime and perhaps you would include the lyrics.

There probably are others who remember Whitefield, and growing up there in the 40s, as you and I do. But it’s so nice to actually read how someone else (you) remembers it. Thank you for doing that.

Sincerely,
David

You can hear Janet's orignal song, "The Ballad of North Whitefield, Maine," by clicking here for our Audio page, and, in the upper right-hand frame, scrolling down to "CD Selections," "Janet" and then clicking on "North Whitefield."

-o-